crunch time

yes indeed, busy am i. busy enough to not bother with capitalization of proper nouns nor sentence headers. hah! hah, the life of a rebel!

OK, Enough of that. But seriously, things are insane. Next Tuesday: comprehensive exam (as in THE exam). One day later: Aerodynamics design project due. Two days later: Spanish test. Four days later: Renewable Energy Systems test. One week later: 25 page term paper regarding Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells in Non-Automotive Applications. Two days later, another aerodynamics project.... Drip, drip, (cranium seepage).

Thank goodness I got to sneak away last week, though I wonder if the cold-water-shock-contrast of returning to this mayhem will send me into a coma. Lauren and I went down to southern Utah for a week; car camping four or five nights and lodging in 40-dollar hotels the remaining evenings. It was incredible, to understate things. I've a new-found respect for Utah's beauty... there are two or three thousand national parks along the southern edge of the state. Not really, but a buttload. If we gleaned anything from our week's visit, it is to budget WAY more time per national park. The Grand Staircase Escalante National Park, aside from having a bi-lingually redundant title, would take decades to fully explore. Two days in passing left us shell shocked though euphoric, and we're already planning a future return trip.

Managed to see my dad on the way back to Elko to Boise. Not worth writing about. He's getting old. He walks and moves like a 75-year-old ex-sumo wrestler, all busted up with arthritis and yet still working construction jobs in 38-degree winter conditions. Still a drunk. Still a travesty.

In contrast, we also got to hang out with my mom, Bob, Heather and Jacob for a day point five. Wow! Bob made us a meal that made up for one week's worth of camp-snack-junk food, and I enjoyed watching my mother and Lauren get to know each other even more. They really haven't spent much time together; ironic that they both mean so much to me, and yet there is such distance (geographical) between them.

Tonight I'm taking a break from studying. I'm headed to Lauren's to watch some good old fashioned TV and relax a bit. Three more weeks. Three more! Lord help me. Three more weeks till it's over; either ending with my Master's or a brain hemorrhage.

Thanks for checking back, it's been a while since I've written.